


The Little Folk

by SHIELD1



Category: Fantastic Four, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 17:25:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18642673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHIELD1/pseuds/SHIELD1
Summary: Her blankets were piled on the floor. Why were her blankets on the floor? What was that lump in the middle? As she watched, dumbfounded, the lump quivered, and then rose. The blankets rolled forward like water to reveal deep red, then white skin, crimson eyes, and an open mouth filled with long sharp teeth -The blanket hit the floor and Darcy was left staring blankly at a nearly two foot tall, vaguely man-shaped… thing. He had a red slouchy cap on a humanoid head, tall ears that came to a point over the brim of his hat and a matte-black hand carved spear clutched in his left hand. What looked like dried blood dotted his face in smears from his forehead to his toothy snarl.





	The Little Folk

Darcy came awake with a gasp in the middle of the night, sweaty and shaking. This was a really bad one, but it wasn't the first time she'd had a nightmare about the dark elves, so with a tired sigh she rolled out of bed, pulled a sparkly purple hair tie from her key chain and walked to kitchen while throwing her hair into a ponytail.

 

 

The suite she normally shared with Jane and Thor was still and dark, and for once Darcy didn't trip over Mew-Mew on her way to the faucet. Forgoing the glass, Darcy ducked her head under the spout.

 

 

When she'd finished she picked her way back to her room, already nearly asleep on her feet. She tapped her door open and stopped short.

 

 

Her blankets were piled on the floor. Why were her blankets on the floor? What was that lump in the middle?

 

 

As she watched, dumbfounded, the lump quivered, and then rose. The blankets rolled forward like water to reveal deep red, then white skin, crimson eyes, and an open mouth filled with long sharp teeth -

 

 

"Jane-" Darcy started hoarsely, before she remembered Jane and Thor were in Asgard for another week. She caught her tongue and held her breath.

 

 

The blanket hit the floor and Darcy was left staring blankly at a nearly two foot tall, vaguely man-shaped… thing. He had a red slouchy cap on a humanoid head, tall ears that came to a point over the brim of his hat and a matte-black hand carved spear clutched in his left hand. What looked like dried blood dotted his face in smears from his forehead to his toothy snarl.

 

 

Darcy's taser was in her nightstand. On the other side of the bed. Damn.

 

 

Darcy started breathing again in great big gulps.

 

 

"Miss Lewis." Jarvis interrupted smoothly. He raised the light and the thing in her blanket-

 

 

Vanished.

 

 

"Your heart rate is greatly elevated." Jarvis observed. "I've alerted Captain Rogers and Sargent Barnes."

 

 

As if on cue the front door swung open.

 

 

"Darcy, it's Steve!"

 

 

"Th-th-th… tiny man." 

 

 

 Steve came down the hallway shield first, at the ready. He edged her out of the way and scanned her room.

 

 

"I don't see anything. Jarvis?"

 

 

"My sensors only register yours and Miss Lewis' presence."

 

 

"He… _poofed_ … when the light turned on."

 

 

"Poofed?" Bucky asked as he came in the front door, pistol out and only halfway into Winter Soldier mode.

 

 

"Clear." Steve reported from inside her room.

 

 

Darcy opened and closed her mouth a few times before throwing her hands up. Bucky reached her and pulled her into a reassuring hug while she clutched at him, getting her breathing under control.

 

 

"Hey, it's ok." Bucky reassured her. He started walking backwards, tugging her with him. "Let's go back to our room. Set you up with some tea."

 

 

Darcy was bundled through her door and into the suite across the hall almost before she knew what was happening.

 

 

"He had a metal spear." She was still dazed as Steve handed her a mug of tea. "And his ears were huge and… pointy."

 

 

"Sounds like a real bad dream, doll." Bucky reassured her. "Hey, it's only one o'clock. Take my room for the night. You got Captain America right next door then, and the Winter Soldier on the couch. Ain't no tiny man gonna getcha."

 

 

Darcy finished her chamomile in shocked silence before being shooed into Bucky's sparsely decorated room.

 

 

…

 

 

An hour later the chamomile hit Darcy's bladder with a vengeance. She came awake on an unfamiliar mattress that was hard as rock, briefly disoriented. Confused, she sat up and looked towards the door.

 

 

On the metal railing at the foot of Bucky's bed was the same little man-thing from before, crouched, snarling, and reaching for her. 'What kind of dumbass breaks into the Winter Soldier's room?' Darcy asked herself hazily, before coming all the way awake with a jerk.

 

 

Darcy shoved herself to the head of the bed with a shriek. He leapt off the railing, his disproportionately huge gnarled hands halfway to her throat just as Jarvis raised the lights and-

 

 

He vanished, the very second that the light touched him.

 

 

Bucky came through the door just ahead of Steve. It was easy to see in the light that there was nothing out of place in Bucky's bare room. Darcy's face crumpled and she curled in on herself.

 

 

"He was… he was here." She blurted out, red faced and ashamed.

 

 

Steve patted her shoulder as she clutched the sheets with shaking hands. Bucky nudged his shoulder in under her face and settled his warm flesh hand on her lower back.

 

 

"Hey, it's ok, we all have the dreams, doll. You've seen some shit, same as all of us."

 

 

"I was awake." She whispered.

 

 

Bucky patted her back as she started to cry.

 

 

"I was awake, _I was awake_." She insisted over and over again.

 

 

…

 

 

Steve went back to bed, and Bucky followed her down to the gym. Normally, she would never be there voluntarily, but it was the brightest lit room in the whole tower and she didn't want to try sleeping again. Bucky hardly ever slept, so he decided to hover. 

 

 

After a year recovering at the upstate compound, Steve and Bucky moved back to the tower to be closer to the Avengers action. Bucky spent the first month hiding out between their apartment and the gym, avoiding the plethora of civilians he hadn't expected to be everywhere in the Avenger's orbit.

 

 

Darcy seemed to take umbrage at Bucky's self imposed isolation. The other civilians were terrified of him, and more than once Bucky came across her telling off a Stark Industries underling for expressing rude - true, though, as far as Bucky was concerned - opinions about the assassin's presence in the building. 

 

 

The first time Bucky let his guard down and let himself be surprised to find someone already in a room, Darcy only smiled at him and handed him a jar to open. Her easy trust and friendly smile were a balm on his tortured psyche, and did more to ease him into the world than anything else. Eventually, he fell into orbit around her same as the rest of the Tower's residents did.

 

 

That night, for the first time their roles reversed.

 

 

Bucky spent the night entertaining her. She walked at a sedate pace on a treadmill while Bucky grappled with a training robot, performed one-arm pulls ups ("Is it cheating to use the metal arm, Buck?"), and tugged her into the boxing ring to practice her jab.

 

 

Six o'clock found them sitting by the side of the pool, Darcy nestled into his side underneath his arm. Bucky had never been so… tactile with Darcy, so quick to reach out to her as he was that night. Darcy was too wrapped up in her own head to fully enjoy it, but noted with some bitterness that at any other time she would have basked in his attention.

 

 

There was a lot Darcy wanted to say, but she couldn't bring herself to speak the words, so instead she hugged Bucky close for a beat and left to head up to work.

 

 

She stopped by her room to shower and change first. One look in the mirror told her that here was no point in trying to fight her hair, so she tightened her ponytail and jumped in the shower.

 

 

"Hey Jarvis," she called out when she was dressed and almost out the door. "Do me a solid and leave the lights on today?"

 

 

"Of course, Miss Lewis.

 

 

"Thanks." Darcy was almost out the door when she doubled back to her nightstand. Ignoring her taser, she fumbled through the drawer for her Chapstick. As she applied it, she stared at the contents, thinking.

 

 

"Where are my keys?" She finally asked, stirring the contents one more time just to be sure they were really missing. There was no need for Darcy to carry her carabiner of keys in the completely automated tower, so when she'd moved in after London they had gone into a drawer of odds and ends. Now it was a keys-and-hair ties carabiner, a solid place to store elastics and keep them from disappearing into whatever dimension it is that bobby pins and hair ties always slip away to.

 

 

If her hair ties had taken the whole ring with them into hiding it would be a pain in the ass to get a new car key when Darcy had to move out of the tower eventually.

 

 

"I do not know, miss." Jarvis broke into her exhausted musings. "If I may, sir appears to be conversing with a mop. He seems to believe it is Doctor Banner."

 

 

"On my way, J-man."

 

 

At least her morning was business as usual.

 

…

 

 

Luckily Tony had been inspired around four o'clock the previous afternoon and worked straight through night. He was so swamped with the Science! that Darcy's muted mood went unnoticed.

 

 

They worked the whole day through with no major interruptions (read: explosions), and Darcy left him that evening wrestling with what looked like a metal catapult. She headed up to the residential area for dinner.

 

 

Afterwards, Clint lured Darcy to the living room with some Chunky Monkey he'd stolen from Tony and parked her in front of the TV.

 

 

"If anyone asks, you're keeping me here against my will." He said seriously as he queued up Dog Cops. Darcy grinned for the first time all day.

 

 

"How?" She asked.

 

 

Clint leaned down to the floor and grabbed both of Darcy's ankles. When he came back up he settled her feet on his lap.

 

 

"You've pinned me."

 

 

They marathoned Dog Cops into the wee hours of the morning, but at some point they fell asleep. Jarvis paused the program and lowered the lights.

 

 

Clint mumbled in his sleep, and shoved Darcy's feet off his thigh. She woke with a start.

 

 

Not two feet from her nose was the little man-thing. Darcy clamped down hard on her initial jolt of fear, and kept her breathing even as she stared at him.

 

 

His lower jaw was working up and down, up and down. She kept her eyes on his face.

 

 

"Mmmmmmmmine." His voice was the sound of glass in a blender, jagged. Harsh.

 

 

Darcy stayed quiet, but started patting the couch with her right hand, searching for Clint.  

 

 

"Mm _mmmmmmine! Mine! Mine!_ " He shrieked, and Darcy grabbed Clint's bicep.

 

 

Jarvis raised the lights and it disappeared.

 

 

"What?" Clint asked, gun in his hand, alert eyes scanning the room.

 

 

"Didn't you hear it at least?" She asked desperately.

 

 

"Hear what?" He turned to look at her.

 

 

She had no words, and just stared back at him blankly.

 

 

"Jarvis?" He asked.

 

 

"There is nothing and no one in the room except for yourself and Miss Lewis."

 

 

"Bad dream?" Clint asked, setting down the gun and stretching his arms over his head. Bucky appeared in the doorway looking troubled.

 

 

"I'm going crazy." Darcy said hollowly. Clint stiffened beside her. Bucky crossed the room and kneeled down in front of her.

 

 

"I'm seeing things." She continued. "I was awake and I'm seeing things and hearing things-"

 

 

Bucky pressed a desperate kiss to her forehead and tucked her face into his shoulder.

 

 

"You're fine Darcy. You'll be ok."

 

 

Clint put his hand on her knee and squeezed tight.

 

 

…

 

 

Bucky walked her down to a head shrinker the next day. Darcy dutifully repeated every sighting, episode, as the shrink called them. He carefully wrote down everything she said, and he sent her on her way empty handed, just as scared and confused as when she'd walked in.

 

 

Darcy decided that sleeping was the root of the problem, since she was only seeing things just as she woke up, and she shouldn't do it anymore. To that end, she managed to stay awake for two days straight after her appointment.

 

 

Bucky became her second shadow, hovering somewhere over her shoulder at all hours of the day watching for signs that she might break down again. To placate him, she would go into her room at reasonable intervals and leave the lights blazing while she worked on her laptop. Working in Tony's lab was her only reprieve from Bucky's watchful gaze, and that's where she was on her third day of no sleep.

 

 

"Don’t get me wrong, I am a champion avoider." Tony yelled over the music, about four hours after she should have left for the day. Jarvis lowered the volume to something more conducive to conversation.

 

 

"But at some point you are going to have to sleep." He continued.

 

 

Darcy just scoffed. Two and a half days with no hallucinations - clearly this was a winning plan.

 

 

Tony eyed her for a moment, hands still in some poor robot's guts.

 

 

"PTSD." He said bluntly. Darcy stood up, knocking her stool over in her haste to back away, putting two lab benches between them.

 

 

"We all have it."

 

 

"You've all gone a few rounds with the craziest shit the universe could throw at us. I mean, you've saved the world." Darcy replied, voice shaky.

 

 

"I've read your file Lewis. You have too."

 

 

"I ran around a school with sticks. That's nothing."

 

 

"Hey, it's not a competition." Oh God, Tony was being nice to her. She was absolutely pathetic.

 

 

Darcy shifted her weight anxiously. Pathetic wasn't a comfortable feeling for her.

 

 

"None of you guys see things." She said hotly. "If it is a competition, I'm the craziest one here."

 

 

Tony held up his hands. He still had a wrench in his grasp.

 

 

"Not a competition." He repeated. Darcy deflated a little, and sat down heavily at her desk by the front wall. 

 

 

"How about you put your head down on the desk." Tony offered. "We'll keep the lights on, you know I'll stay here all night. Then in the morning we'll tie Bruce to a chair and you can tell him all about it. Works for me."

 

 

He sounded reasonable, which was crazy. This was Tony Stark. He was as far from reasonable as a man who built nukes for fun was allowed to be. But…

 

"I'm tired." She admitted to him. Tony only nodded.

 

 

Despite her reservations, Darcy pulled her sparkly purple hair tie from her wrist and twisted her hair up into a ponytail before folding her arms on the desk.

 

 

"You'll stay here?" She asked. Tony nodded solemnly

 

 

"Lights on?" 

 

 

"Lights on. I can even have Dum-E start a disco."

 

 

"Nah, that's alright." Darcy decided. She looked around one more time. Her desk faced the front glass wall. The hallway beyond it was pitch black, but the lab was well lit and she'd only hallucinated in the dark. She could hear that Tony had gone back to work, and it was oddly soothing. Well. Maybe more familiar, than soothing.

 

 

"No explosions?" She mumbled into the crook of her elbow as her head met the desk.

 

 

If Tony answered, she didn't hear him.

 

 

…

 

 

However much sleep Darcy got, she didn't feel like it was enough when she surfaced. The lights were dimmed a little bit, and she could hear Tony snoring like a lumberjack behind her. She twisted her head to look at him, and found him slumped over the bench.

 

 

When she looked forward there was a nasty little face with too many sharp teeth just beyond the glass.

 

 

"Awww." She said out loud, completely disappointed. Tony gave an almighty snort.

 

 

"Are those my keys?" She wondered out loud, looking at the primitive black spear. It looked like her keys. The clip had been slipped over the stabby part and now it was resting on the hilt halfway down.

 

 

From behind her, Tony screamed.

 

 

The lights came up all the way, in the lab and the hallway, and the key thief disappeared.

 

 

…

 

 

"YOU PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND. THERE IS A TINY POTATO MAN ARMED WITH A SPEAR RUNNING AROUND MY TOWER AND JARVIS DOESN’T SEE HIM!!" Tony yelled at the assembled, drowsy, Avengers.

 

 

Behind him, Darcy was jumping up and down.

 

 

"I'm not hallucinating!" She yelled, pumping her fists. She got a much better reaction. Bucky, Steve, and Clint whooped as they surged towards her for a group hug. She got them all jumping up and down with her, cackling in relief. Natasha watched with an indulgent smirk and even Bruce flashed a crooked grin at Darcy.

 

 

Tony watched with his mouth hanging open.

 

 

" **TINY POTATO MAN!** " He shrieked. The jumping paused and Darcy's beaming face popped out of the group over Clint's shoulder.

 

 

"Not crazy!"

 

 

"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves." Tony snapped back snidely.

 

 

Everyone's heads whipped around to look at him, and the temperature in the room dropped about ten degrees when Darcy's smile wobbled.

 

 

Tony stared at the Avengers.

 

 

The Avengers stared at Tony.

 

 

Natasha cracked her knuckles.

 

 

"… Lewis isn't crazy!" Tony whooped, throwing his hands up in the air. The jumping commenced anew.

 

 

…

 

 

They settled in the living room after Darcy was all jumped out.

 

 

Steve and Bruce went to go make tea. Bucky hadn't let go of Darcy since Tony's lab, and he led her to the love seat, pulling her down on top of him as he collapsed onto it.

 

 

"M'sorry." He mumbled into the back of her shoulder. Darcy patted his arm tiredly.

 

 

"Hey, no-"

 

 

"I'm the one who kept telling you it was a dream. No wonder you thought you were nuts like me."

 

 

"I thought I was-"

 

 

Ugh. Now that Darcy was past the initial elation, she felt guilty about that celebration. Most of the team, Bucky especially, suffered from a whole gamut of PTSD symptoms.  She did her best to be accommodating of them, but now that she thought about it she'd been a bit of a snot when she thought she might be just like them. Now wasn't the time to make that up to everyone though, so:

 

 

"not… great, because I'm being harassed by a tiny dude-thing with red eyes and no shoes-"

 

 

"And a spear." Tony interjected.

 

 

"That no one else could see." Darcy finished.

 

 

"I saw it." Tony said fervently. "It's freaky as fuck. Those teeth." He shivered. "It's got dried blood all over its face. What the fuck is that about?"

 

 

"No idea." Darcy answered calmly. She sat up a little straighter to take a mug from Steve.

 

 

"Do you think you could draw it?" Steve asked, offering his sketchbook when he sat down.

 

 

"Uuuuhhhhh..." Darcy paused to take a sip, face twisted at the thought. "I'm a terrible artist but I can-"

 

 

"Gimme." Tony said, hand extended. He took the pencil and got to work while everyone drank their tea.

 

 

"Whadaya think?" He asked, handing it to Darcy when he finished. She tilted her head as she examined it.

 

 

"The body should look more like when a tomato goes rotten." She said, passing it to Steve. "Like there's still some structure in it, but mostly it's goo inside. And the teeth aren't quite right. I looked on google yesterday. It's more like an Angler fish but like, three times as many teeth."

 

Bucky snuck a look before Steve took the sketchbook and his arms tightened around Darcy like a vise. Darcy pinched his thigh before he could apologize again.

 

 

When the picture had been passed around they all stared dumbly at each.

 

 

"What now?" Clint asked Steve.

 

 

"Well I'm gonna run some diagnostics to see why Jarvis keeps missing this thing." Tony said, running his hand through his hair. "Thank God Pepper's outta town." He muttered.

 

 

"We can run the sketch through SHIELD's database." Natasha decided, angling her phone to take a picture.

 

 

"And Darcy?" Steve asked. When all eyes turned to her, Darcy shrugged.

 

 

"Well if I don't sleep he doesn't show up."

 

 

"You haven't been sleeping?" Bucky demanded. In response, Tony picked up the sketchbook and showed him the image again.

 

 

"He goes away-"

 

 

"Poofs." Darcy interrupted. It didn't run away or hide, it was just there one second and gone the next. Poof was the best description.  

 

 

"…poofs, when the lights go up." Bruce observed.

 

 

"I don think it stands in direct light." Darcy confirmed.

 

 

"Jarvis turn on every light in this tower." Tony ordered.

 

 

"Well it's not like I'll never encounter a dark corner again." Darcy pointed out. "I don't want to be demanding or anything, but I think I need a more permanent solution than flipping the light switch."

 

 

"We could lure it out." Natasha ventured. Bucky and Steve protested, but Darcy nodded.

 

 

"I like that, let's do that." Darcy said.

 

 

"Yeah, sleep in my lab again." Tony said, already standing up. "Same conditions. It stayed in the hall."

 

 

"I'm not really sleepy right now." Darcy said uncertainly.

 

 

"Bruce, drug her up." Tony ordered. Bruce sighed, but looked at Darcy expectantly.

 

 

"… I want a bed this time."

 

 

…

 

 

And that's how the Avengers found themselves gathered in Tony's lab, watching Darcy snore on a canvas army cot for three hours.

 

 

They were arranged against the side wall, with Natasha closest to the hallway and Bruce the furthest away. Natasha, Bucky, and Steve stayed standing, while Tony and Bruce sat and Clint crouched. Bruce fell asleep first, sitting straight up with his back against the wall. Tony stayed vigilant for almost two hours. As he started to nod off, he snorted and then smacked Clint's arm. He was wearing his gauntlets, so it probably hurt.

 

 

"Come on bird brain, wake up." Tony muttered. He flinched and came properly awake when Clint turned his head slowly to meet his eyes, pinning him with a sniper stare.

 

 

In another half hour, Tony dropped into a sound sleep. His hands dropped to the floor with a sharp metal clang. Darcy jerked awake.

 

 

Natasha raised her gun, eyes on the hallway. Bucky kept his focus on Darcy.

 

 

Her blanket rustled where it met the floor.

 

 

"Nng-" Bucky started, already moving towards her.

 

 

Before he could reach the cot a lump flashed unbelievable fast beneath her blanket from the floor to the canvass to-

 

 

Darcy's hair pulled taut and her head snapped backwards to an acute, painful angle.

 

 

"OY!" She yelled, throwing the blanket to the floor. When the cot was revealed, there was nothing on it.

 

 

"Ow!" She swung her feet over the edge, hands coming up to press at her stinging scalp. "Did he pull my-"

 

 

Bucky shoved her off the cot and flipped it up, gun aimed at the floor.

 

 

Darcy lay in a stunned heap on the tile before rolling onto her back.

 

 

"It's kindergarten all over again." She informed the ceiling.

 

 

"Indeed, Miss Lewis." Jarvis agreed.

 

 

…

 

 

"That's gonna really hurt tomorrow… well, later today." Bruce told Darcy when they were back in the living room, warm fingers probing at the back of her neck. "Let's alternate cold and hot for now, try to relax those muscles."

 

 

Bucky reached out and laid his metal hand at the base of neck.

 

 

"That works for cold." Bruce affirmed. "I'll go set up a heat compress." He added as he wandered away.

 

 

"As fun as that was," Darcy started.

 

 

A thunderous crack and the smell of ozone coming from the balcony interrupted her. Jane and Thor tumbled into the room, all smiles and mead. Jane stopped short when she saw the Avengers clustered around Darcy.

 

 

"Why is everyone awake?" She zeroed in on her former intern. "Darcy?"

 

 

"All good." Darcy flashed her a thumbs up. Natasha snorted.

 

 

"Well ok," Darcy amended. "Maybe not _all_ good. Some bad."

 

 

Tony clapped Thor on the shoulder. "Know anything about tiny men with spears that haunt lab assistants?"

 

 

"That could describe any number of beings." Thor cocked his head to the side. "Perhaps you could be more descriptive."

 

 

Clint picked up the sketchbook and flipped it to Thor. Jane came over, taking in Darcy's pale expression and pinched face.

 

 

"I leave for just a few weeks and you morph into me." Jane observed. "When's the last time you slept?"

 

 

"A little bit tonight." Darcy said truthfully.

 

 

"In dress and appearance, it seems you have acquired one of your tomtë, friend Stark." Thor announced, passing back the sketchbook.

 

 

"A name." Darcy commented. "That's nice."

 

 

"Woah woah woah! I don't want it!" Tony yelped.

 

 

"They are said to be good luck, as they assist humans raising crops by performing their labors at night while the farmers sleep." Thor explained.

 

 

"WE'RE NOT ON A FARM!" Tony gesticulated wildly around the room.

 

 

"And it's definitely not good luck." Steve added.

 

 

"Your ancestors left them gifts." Thor suggested. "Perhaps you should try an offering of porridge."

 

 

Tony's pulse started jumping at his temple.

 

…

 

 

"No." Darcy said flatly.

 

 

"Right, but this time it'll work." Tony argued.

 

 

"I am not going to bed and waking up three times in one night."

 

 

"Actually it's morning." Steve interjected.

 

 

"Really? Well anyway I don't think I could fall asleep again."

 

 

"Well maybe we could…" Tony waved his hand expressively.

 

 

Bucky and Steve sat up straight.

 

 

"We could what?" Darcy asked with a frown.

 

 

"Like… like a tap. On your head."

 

 

"NO." Bucky and Steve shouted simultaneously. Darcy pasted on her best 'aghast' face, leaning away from him.

 

 

Tony threw up his hands. "I'm running out of ideas here Lewis!"

 

 

"Ok ok. Jarvis what time is it?"

 

 

"Eight o'clock Miss Lewis."

 

 

"Thank you Jarvis. How about I go out today? I've been in tower for like a week straight. I'm going to go get a book and a blanket and then I'm going to go find a park and lay down in the sun and read all day. Then when I'm ready for a nap, I come back to the lab."

 

 

"Ah…" Steve cocked his head to the side. "What if you fall asleep outside?"

 

 

"What if it follows you out of the tower like bedbugs? With spears?" Tony asked.

 

 

Darcy ended up out on the balcony, with all the outside lights on just in case, while Tony checked and double checked Jarvis until that afternoon. When she felt sleepy, she made her way to Tony's lab.

 

 

In short order, she was stuffed into an Iron Man suit display case, and serenaded by Lana Del Ray's Stark-exclusive version of Rock a Bye Baby, staring dumbly at the assembled Avengers (and Jane).

 

 

"This is so uncomfortable." She groused, fussing with her sheer white blanket.

 

 

"But well lit." Tony pointed out.

 

 

"Ssshhh!" Jane hissed. "Don't talk to her. You're distracting her."

 

 

Darcy rolled her eyes before obediently shutting them.  

 

 

She'd been dozing for almost half an hour when the corners of her mouth dragged down. She frowned, and whined once before coming awake, her heart pounding. She looked sharply to her left, already knowing what she would see.

 

 

Just beyond the pool of light was the Tomte, watching her, standing still, with rage boiling in his eyes. This time Darcy could clearly see her key ring decorating his spear.

 

 

"That is no tomtë." Thor boomed. "It is much too large."

 

 

When the not-a-tomtë turned to them, his demeanor changed.

 

 

"TTTTTHHHHHHIIIIIIEEEEEEEFFFFF!" He shrieked. Darcy had to cover her ears as the deafening noise bounced through her display case. The not-a-tomtë charged back towards the Avengers.

 

 

Natasha fired once, and missed. Clint tried to kick him when he got close enough and the thing dodged him, faster than Darcy's eyes could track. Bucky and Steve reached. for it and missed as well.

 

 

Thor had shoved Jane behind him and swung meuw-meuw low, like a croquet bat. His cape flared over the scene and Darcy couldn't make out exactly what happened, but one of Tony's lab benches ripped out of the ground and flew across the lab, landing on Darcy's desk, and Jane started screaming.

 

 

The lights came up, the threat vanished, and they all contemplated the scene before them in silence.

 

 

Water gushed from the bench's crater for a moment before Jarvis shut down the lines that had fed it. When Thor's cape settled though, Jane had everyone's attention.

 

 

Seated on the ground, she clutched her thigh, looking stunned.

 

 

"Ow!" Jane finally said. Blood seeped out from beneath her hands.

 

 

…

 

 

"You are so lucky you got stabbed!" Darcy shook her finger at Jane.  "This is all your fault and I can't even yell at you!"

 

 

"You are yelling." Bruce observed calmly.

 

 

Jane gaped back at Darcy. They'd all made their way back to the living room after Bruce had wrapped up Jane's thigh and Thor had been calmed down.

 

 

"MY fault?" Jane spluttered.

 

 

"He's never called ME a thief!" Darcy retorted.

 

 

"Clearly he doesn't know you then!" Darcy pasted her best offended face on. "Oh don't give me that look!" Jane continued. "Whose leggings are those, hmmmmm?"

 

 

"Well what do you care?" Darcy's blush deepened. "It's not like Thor ever wears them anyway!"

 

 

…

 

 

A call from the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards ground any further research to a halt, and Darcy retreated to the balcony with her book.

 

 

She'd made it through two chapters before crunching footsteps and metallic straining broke her concentration.

 

 

"We're trying the thing Lewis!" Iron Man shouted.

 

 

Darcy shrieked, covered her head, and rolled away.

 

 

"Not that thing Lewis." Tony grumbled. He stooped down and scooped her up with one arm around her midsection. "The bedbug thing." Darcy saw Bucky and Steve come around the corner from the hallway. They stopped and gaped for a moment too long, because before she could protest, Tony took off.

 

 

Darcy screamed and flailed for the whole trip, but shut up when she realized where they were headed.

 

 

"Goddammit Tony!" She yelled. "Why didn't you just say so!?"

 

 

"Didn't want Thing One and Thing Two to get in the way." Tony grumbled as he touched down on the Baxter Building's roof, wrenching open the access door. When she didn't move to the door fast enough, he actually put his hands on her shoulders and propelled her through. The door slammed shut and locked behind her.

 

 

Quiet as a mouse, she tiptoed through the familiar residential floor, making a beeline for her sworn enemy's bedroom. It was luckily unoccupied, and Darcy slipped in between his sheets with a triumphant grin.

 

 

Too buzzed to sleep, Darcy stared at the ceiling mulling over what Dr. Mr. Fantastic could have done to piss Tony off enough to sic the not-a-tomtë onto the Baxter Building. Reed was an even bigger asshole than Tony, and Darcy had never thought that such a thing was possible. He could probably even send Mother Theresa into a homicidal rage.

 

 

A tumult in the hall broke off her train of thought, and she rolled to the floor and under the bed.

 

 

She was quickly found by Reed, Steve, Bucky, and her archenemy, clenching her eyes tight trying to will herself to sleep.

 

 

"Oh come on!" Johnny Storm yelled. When Darcy opened her eyes, he was crouched down, illuminating the space between his mattress and his floor with a tiny flame. "When are you going to let this go Lewis!?"

 

 

"Fucking never." She vowed. Johnny reached in and grabbed Darcy's ankle, dragging her out of her cozy spot to face Captain America's stern disappointment. Reed's patronizing exasperation pissed her off enough that despite Steve's face, she crossed her arms and stood her ground.

 

 

Bucky reached for her, and only the concern on his face softened her.

 

 

"Hey, when Stark grabbed 'ya…" Darcy let him probe at her shoulder and upper chest, looking for bruises.

 

 

"I'm fine. Not," She shot a glare at Johnny f*cking Storm, "that I wouldn't sacrifice some comfort for this."

 

 

Bucky glanced between the two of them. "What…?"

 

 

"He KNOWS WHAT HE DID-"

 

 

"IT'S NOT LIKE I-"

 

 

"FUCK YOU STORM-"

 

 

"YOU'RE SUCH A FUCKING DRAMA QUEEN-"

 

 

Bucky stiffened and Steve turned the full force of his disappointed face on Storm. Darcy didn't skip a beat.

 

 

"MY BOOKCASE, STORM. YOU SET MY GODDAMN BOOKCASE ON FIRE." Bucky sucked in air over his teeth and Steve did a double take between Darcy and Storm.

 

 

"STARK REPLACED-"

 

 

Exhaustion and stress overcame her, and to her embarrassment she burst into tears. "YOU CAN'T FUCKING REPLACE THE FIRST COPY OF HARRY POTTER THAT A PERSON EVER GOT YOU SON OF A BITCH!!"

 

 

Bucky handed her off to a stunned and uncomfortable Steve while she fought back her tears and surprised everyone by cold-cocking Johnny Storm with his metal fist in middle of his next excuse.

 

 

…

 

 

"Fascinating." Reed repeated for about the millionth time. Darcy had begun to regret going along with Tony's plan about five hours ago, and she was ready to go back home, revenge on Storm be damned. (Not that she would ever tell him that, of course. Ever. _EVER._ )

 

 

"And you're _absolutely_ sure you've never travelled between dimensions?" Reed asked for maybe the literal millionth time.

 

 

Rather than answer, Darcy saluted him with her middle finger.

 

 

"Yes, yes, you've said." Reed dismissed. "But you got just a trace of the trans-dimensional on you, and unless your head has travelled somewhere that the rest of you hasn't-"

 

 

 "Omigod." Jane had joined them two hours ago, and jolted in her seat. Everyone turned to her.

 

 

"Your hairband. From your keychain." Jane said. "You keep your hairbands on your keychain."

 

 

"The not-a-tomtë has my keychain. You can't borrow any right now." Darcy mumbled. She was soooooo tired… Bucky nudged her to wake her up.

 

 

"Your keychain was on Svartalfheim. With me. It went through that rip in space during the Convergence, remember? I found them in a cave on Svartalfheim."

 

 

Darcy stared at her dumbly, too tired and stressed to process what Jane was saying.

 

 

"What if a different kind of elf, like not one of the Dark Elves but maybe related to a tomtë, but on Svartalfheim, had your keys and your hairbands before I took them back to earth? Like he collects shiny things like a leprechaun does, and then I took them back without realizing and he followed us back?"

 

 

Darcy reached up to grip her soon-to-be throbbing temples.

 

 

"Are you fucking telling me I'm being stalked by a space leprechaun for my hair tie?"

 

 

…

 

 

"I have never seen you wearing white." Darcy said, openly gaping at Bucky and his slightly see through shorts. Bucky shifted uncomfortably.

 

 

"I like it." She said. They were both in white shorts and shirts, ready to climb onto a clear plastic cot in Richard Reed's lab for her to get some sleep and summon the alien not-a-tomte one last time. Hopefully. Bucky insisted on being as close to her as possible, even if that meant being on the cot, in case it got too close to Darcy again.  

 

 

"Yeah, well- c'mere." He said, holding out his right hand. When she took it, he guided her around the cot and tugged her down to sit on the side opposite him, facing each other. They were in the center of the room. Behind him, The Avengers and The Fantastic Four stood braced, ready to deal with the elf. Behind Darcy, darkness.

 

 

"The chance to study it would be-" Reed whispered, continuing an argument he'd lost.

 

 

"No." Jane and Tony whispered in unison.

 

 

Bucky grumbled, but Darcy shushed him.

 

 

"His voice is better than Valium." She told Bucky's chest. "Let him talk and this'll be over quicker."

 

 

Bucky didn't answer but his right hand came up to tangle in her hair, scratching lightly against her scalp. That lovely sensation probably helped her drift off more than Reed trying to convince the others mathematically that the benefits to the study of inter-dimensional biology outweighed the risk of being stabbed to death in their own labs.

 

 

…

 

 

Darcy didn't drop fully off to sleep, but opened her eyes after a brief, almost lucid dream wherein Steve as both Captain America and Iron Man (somehow) chased Reed around. Reed had a Hitler 'stache, and kept getting up every time Steve punched him. Johnny was there too, but with teeth like the not-a-tomtë's.

 

 

The itch between her shoulder blades told her that it had been enough. It was in the room.

 

 

Bucky grunted in a negative sort of way, and followed a millisecond behind her as she sat up. When she turned, a toothy glare greeted her at the edge of the pool of light she was in.

 

 

The stupid fucking space leprechaun wasn't where they needed it to be. It was about ten feet too far to the left.

 

 

"mmmmmMmmmMMMmmMMMMMINE!!!!" It garbled.

 

 

"You want it?" Darcy demanded, starting to swing her legs around. Bucky caught her before she could touch the ground, pistol trained on the alien elf.

 

 

"Fuck off-" Darcy started to say, wrenching against Bucky's hold, managing to at least twist her hips around. "-the BOTH of you!"

 

 

With that, she tugged the sparkly purple hairband from her wrist and hurled it into the darkness. With a hair raising screech, the elf threw himself after it, and someone hit the switch. With a low hum, a circle of light crackled to life from the pitch black center of the room.

 

 

…

 

 

The not-a-tomte/space leprechaun/Smolgrim The Enraged of Svartalfheim screeched, twisted, stabbed at the ground with his spear. He did everything he could to fight the draw of the inter-dimensional tunnel he was being drawn through, but in the end, he was drawn through, the last screams of his foes echoing through his ears.

 

 

"REED! NO, THAT’S NOT SVARTALFHEIM!!!"

 

 

Smolgrim had kept his prize. His enemy, the waif-like female, had stolen the first shiny objects he'd ever seen in all of his existence on Svartalfheim. The reflective surface was fascinating to him, and that… creaturehad thought she could just carry it away, through the cave, to a new world. Smolgrim had followed her, and her giant oaf companion through to a world full of shiny objects. Smolgrim had wavered, been tempted to lay claim to some of this new world's treasures, but eventually he had gotten himself under control and hunted down the waif, and what was his. He had finally claimed ALL of what is his.

 

 

And now he was-

 

 

In a new world more shiny than the first he had travelled to. Every soaring building was clad in a reflective yellow. Brilliant colors gleamed every direction he looked.

 

 

Well, now that he had what was his, maybe he could begin a… collection of shiny treasures.

 

 

…

 

 

"REED THAT WAS ASGARD!!" Jane yelled. Thor's face was dark.

 

 

"I didn't!" Reed protested.

 

 

Tony was laughing hysterically, leaning over Reed's control panel where he had elbowed some of Reed out of the way just before sending the not-a-tomte away.

 

 

"TONY!" Jane, Reed, and Steve all yelled at the same time.

 

 

"If you start an inter-dimensional diplomatic incident over this I'm not cleaning up after you." Darcy warned.

 

 

"Maybe they can try leaving some porridge out for it." Tony shot back. He and Darcy shared a look before they both fell out laughing. 

 

 

…

 

 

Darcy realized just how tired everyone was when they got back to Stark Tower. Thor and Jane had quickly returned to Asgard to explain the situation, and everyone else trudged to their beds silently, quietly breaking off until Steve, Bucky, and Darcy were alone in their hallway. Steve walked ahead without looking back, while Bucky lingered at Darcy’s door with her.

 

“You know,” Darcy said, hand on her doorknob. “Maybe you should-“

 

Bucky swooped down and kissed her before she could finish giving an empty excuse to get him into her room. Suddenly wide awake, Darcy grinned broadly as she tugged him through the door.

 

_Fin_


End file.
